Taunton Housing Authority eyes Walker School for public senior housing

Monday

Sep 20, 2010 at 12:01 AMSep 20, 2010 at 8:03 PM

Gerry Tuoti

The Taunton Housing Authority is exploring the possibility of converting the 115-year-old former Walker School into public housing for seniors, but the plan is still in the preliminary stage, housing authority director Colleen Doherty said.

“We haven’t even toured the building yet,” she said.
Doherty said the housing authority is always keeping an eye toward expansion and is interested in the former Walker School building because it is available, not because it is especially suited to the authority’s needs.

“We always have interest in something that looks like a potential property to expand affordable housing,” she said.

Walker School was shut down at the end of the last school year due to the Taunton school system’s budget constraints. During a School Committee meeting earlier this month, Superintendent Julie Hackett said the housing authority had “expressed interest in Walker as an elderly housing unit.”

Doherty said the Taunton Housing Authority’s main focus is currently on rewriting a federal grant application to get funding for rebuilding the Fairfax Gardens housing complex on DeWert Avenue and developing the Parcel 6A property, which is adjacent to the GATRA bus station.

Doherty said the city currently has about 750 public housing units. With year-long waiting lists for public senior housing in Taunton, there is a significant need for expansion, she said.

“We are always on the lookout for available properties and how they may or not meet our needs,” she said. “We look at available properties all the time.”

Any transfer of the school building to another department is subject to approval by the City Council.